


Losing Hope

by mdelpin



Category: Given (Anime), Given (Manga)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Disappointment, Drabble, Given Valentine's Event 2020, M/M, Male Friendship, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:02:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22702900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mdelpin/pseuds/mdelpin
Summary: Take thought he knew Haruki quite well, it was why he’d never confessed his feelings. As it turns out Haruki was full of painful surprises.
Relationships: Nakayama Haruki/Yatake Kouji
Comments: 12
Kudos: 41
Collections: Given Valentine's Event 2020





	Losing Hope

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Теряя надежду](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29222709) by [AkvaAstra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkvaAstra/pseuds/AkvaAstra)



> Written for Given Valentine's Event for the Prompt: Longing
> 
> Want to talk with me about Given, other animes, writing, or my stories? Click on the link to join our discord [The Unholy Trinity](https://discord.gg/asvBPrDNX9)!

Disclaimer: All Given Characters belong to Natsuki Kizu

Take had known Haruki for a long time. They had met at university and because of their similar interests had become fast friends. Over the years, they had worked together at a bunch of crappy part-time jobs, studied for their classes, been in bands together, and even worked on a few film projects. Take liked to think that he knew Haruki very well. He was an easy guy to read after all. 

Haruki was kind and funny and rather shy until you got to know him. The type of guy who would do anything in his power to help a friend, and in some cases, Take had seen him extend that kindness to complete strangers without expecting anything in return. Yes, Haruki was an easy person to like, especially because he was so unexpectedly humble. 

Yet in all the years that Take had known him, Haruki had only dated girls, which was why he’d been uncomfortable admitting his occasional interest in other men. He didn’t think Haruki would judge him harshly for it per se. Honestly, he didn’t really know what was keeping him from admitting it, but something inside him yelled wait, and for better or worse Take had listened. 

Once he started spending more time behind the camera, his eyes became trained to notice little things, and after a while, he started seeing the world differently. More than anything else, Take thought this was probably what caused him to develop a slight infatuation for his friend. 

Take started noticing how Haruki’s eyes would light up to a warm, beautiful, amber color when he was excited about something, or the way the sunlight would kiss Haruki’s hair making it look like molten gold. He would find his eyes drawn to Haruki’s sensual mouth at the most unexpected times, especially the way he would bite his bottom lip when he was in deep thought. The intense longing he felt was confusing, so he kept it to himself, not wanting to complicate a friendship that was important to him. 

He spent more time working on his music and his videos. He found girls he could take on double dates with Haruki, even though his feelings only continued to grow stronger. 

Things between them remained good until the day Haruki met Akihiko Kaji, and everything changed. 

Haruki invited Akihiko to create a band with him, and they soon recruited Uenoyama to join them. Little by little, Haruki started spending more time with his bandmates and less time with him. Take tried not to resent it, his life had gotten busier too now that he had a full-time job at the video editing company. But it didn’t help that he disliked Akihiko immensely. From the moment they were introduced, he knew the drummer was no good for Haruki, even as a friend. 

With time Take was shocked to learn that he didn’t know Haruki as well as he’d thought. For it wasn’t hard to recognize that Haru was infatuated with Akihiko. And it hurt to see the longing in his eyes, crashing all the hopes Take had ever held. Especially when Kaji was so obviously a player, stringing his friend along with nothing more than empty words and loaded glances. 

But there was nothing he could do, he’d wasted years hiding his feelings, and now Haruki had made his choice. And though Take knew he could make him happy if given a chance, he wasn’t what Haruki wanted. 

If he valued their friendship, Take had no choice but to face that and move on. This time for real. 

He just hadn’t expected it to be so hard to watch Haruki fall in love with someone else, knowing he’d never see him as anything more than his best friend. 

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I'm so so on this. My original idea was to have Take longing for Haru and Aki longing for Ugetsu and then somehow have them meet each other at a bar and see each other differently but I don't know I guess I lost interest so I only got as far as Take. :)


End file.
